Self-binder for books, pamphlets and the like

ABSTRACT

This invention is for placing over worn or damaged covers of books without removing the old covers and in order to provide a quick and inexpensive restoration. This invention is not a &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;dust cover&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; but is a &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;self-binder&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; made of sheet material that is not pliant enough to be suitable for folding around the edges of an old cover; and it is secured to the old cover by adhesive. The preferred construction has the inside surfaces of the front and back covers of the self-binder coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive mass covered by a release sheet that is peeled off before bringing the front and back cover portions into contact wtih the front and back cover of the book. A spine portion of the self-binder has zones of greater flexibility than that of the cover portions; and these zones may be spaced parallel zones that provide potential hinge lines with geometrical spacing to accommodate books of different thickness. The self-binder hinges are strong enough to permanently replace torn original cover hinges. The edges of the self-binder are trimmed to be flush with the old cover. The trimming may be after adhering to the old cover or surviving first and last pages or by cutting on lines of the release paper before adhering to the book. The invention can also be used for new books, if desired.

United States Patent [191 Sender [4 1 Sept. 9, 1975 1 SELF-BINDER FOR BOOKS, PAMPI-ILETS AND THE LIKE [75] Inventor: Bernard T. Sendor, Westbury, NY.

[73] Assignee: Bookwrights, Inc., Scarsdale, NYv

[22] Filed: Apr. 25, 1973 [2]] Appl. No.: 354,434

Primary ExaminerRobert W. Michell Assistant Exuminer-Vance Y. Hum

[57] ABSTRACT This invention is for placing over worn or damaged covers of books without removing the old covers and in order to provide a quick and inexpensive restoration. This invention is not a dust cover" but is a self-binder made of sheet material that is not pliant enough to be suitable for folding around the edges of an old cover; and it is secured to the old cover by adhesive. The preferred construction has the inside surfaces of the front and back covers of the self-binder coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive mass covered by a release sheet that is peeled off before bring ing the front and back cover portions into contact wtih the front and back cover of the book. A spine portion of the selfbinder has zones of greater flexibility than that of the cover portions; and these zones may be spaced parallel zones that provide potential hinge lines with geometrical spacing to accommodate books of different thickness. The self binder hinges are strong enough to permanently replace torn original cover hinges. The edges of the self-binder are trimmed to be flush with the old cover. The trimming may be after adhering to the old cover or surviving first and last pages or by cutting on lines of the release paper before adhering to the book. The invention can also be used for new books, if desired.

4 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures PATENIEBSEP 9:915 3. 904,227

ADHESIVE LABELS SELF-BINDER FOR BOOKS. PAMPHLETS AND THE LIKE BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Although not limited to such purposes, the selfbinder of this invention is intended for applying a new cover over damaged and worn covers of library books. It has the advantage that it requires no other supplies and no tools other than a heavy pair of scissors. Another advantage is that it can be applied to books over a wide range of sizes, thicknesses, and cover styles.

The self-binder of this invention is made of sheet material which is higher and wider than the height and the total width of the largest book with which it is intended to be used. The expression total width" is used herein to designate the width of a book when both covers are open flat; that is, the total width is the sum of the width of the back cover, spine portion, and front cover of the book. The material used for the self-binder of this invention must be substantially stronger than the material used for paper dust covers in order to provide a per manent restoration for a damaged or worn book, particularly one where the cover is torn along the hinge lines.

Sheet material of the kind required for this selfbinder is not thin and flexible enough to be suitable for bending around the edged of an old cover; and this invention provides a binder with front and back cover portions that are adhered to the front and back covers of a book over the outside surfaces of the front and back covers and that are then trimmed off flush with the top, bottom and free edges of the covers.

The invention is intended primarily for hard cover books, but it is suitable for books having covers of some flexibility; and it is a feature of the invention that the self-binder has a spine portion which can be more flexible than the cover portions of the self-binder in order to provide hinge lines where necessary. This greater flexibility of the spine portion may be obtained by having the average thickness of the spine portion less than that of the front and back cover portions; by using a laminated sheet where one of the laminates having particularly good hinge characteristics provides the greater flexibility for the spine portion; and by provid ing parallel zones of greater flexibility extending for the height of the spine portion and which may have geometrical spacing to accommodate books of different thickness with fewer zones.

Although most of the illustrated embodiments of the invention are made with a sheet of material which is of one-piece across the covers and spine of the book with which it is used, the invention can be made with the self-binder in two parts. When made in two parts, one part includes the front cover portion and the other part includes the back cover portion and each of the cover portions has a spine portion with one of the spine por tions overlaying the other when the self-binder is attached to a book. Plastic materials are particularly well suited to the present invention, partly because of their advantageous qualities for hinges and partly because of the fact that such plastic sheet material can be trimmed at any location to make it flush with an old cover and to always leave a neat and serviceable edge. Various plastic constructions including laminates will be described in connection with modified forms of the invention illustrated in the drawing.

The invention can be used for new books, and can be used for binding magazines and pamphlets, or for converting a paperback book into a hard cover book, but it is not intended for commercial book manufacture because it is essentially a hand operation. An important advantage of the invention is that it can be used anywhere without any bookbinding machinery and without any training in bookbinding. Directions for using the self-binder are printed on the release sheet in the preferred construction; and different portions of the selfbinder are preferably covered with separately removable release sheets to make the self-binder easier to apply.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING In the drawing, forming a part hereof, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view showing a book to which the self-binder of this invention has been applied;

FIG. 2 is a view, on a reduced scale, showing a selfbinder suitable for applying over an old book in the manner shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view showing a modified form of the invention in which the self-binder is made in two parts, one of which is shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 but showing the other part of the self-binder which is combined with that shown in FIG. 4 in order to completely cover a book;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary, enlarged sectional view taken on the line 66 on FIG. 4',

FIG. 7 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 7-7 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a view of the inside surface of the preferred form of the self-binder of this invention, a portion of one of the release sheets being broken away to expose the adhesive;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 99 of FIG. 8 and illustrating the way in which books of different thickness are to be assembled with the self-binder to obtain hinge lines at the proper location;

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary sectional view showing a modified construction from that of FIG. 9 with the selfbinder made from a plastic laminate;

FIG. I] is a view similar to FIG. I0 but showing a modified construction for a special type of plastic;

FIG. 12 shows another modified laminated construction for the self-binder of this invention; and

FIG. 13 is an enlarged, fragmentary view taken on the line l3l3 of FIG. 12.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 shows a self-binder 10 made in accordance with this invention and having a spine portion 10a, a front cover portion 10b and a back cover portion 106. The self-binder is applied to a book 11 with a front cover 12 of the book adhered to the front cover portion 10b of the self-binder and a back Cover 13 of the book secured to the back cover portion 10c of the selfbinder. The book 11 has a spine portion 14 which is covered by the spine portion 10a of the self-binder l and which may be adhered or not adhered to the spine portion of the book as desired.

If the spine portion 10a is opaque. as may be the case, then adhesive labels can be applied to identify the book as shown in FIg. 1.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the construction of the selfbinder 10 in more detail. It is of one-piece constructon and if designed for universal application to books of different size, the self-binder 10 will be originally larger than the book in both height and in the combined width of the front and back covers and the spine portion of the original book to which it is to be applied. In order to obtain more flexibility across the spine portion 100, the average thickness of this portion of the self-binder is made less than the cover portion 10b and IOC by forming grooves 20 extending in transverse directions across the spine portion to reduce its stiffness. The areas of the inside surface of the self-binder 10 are coated with adhesive 21 and this adhesive is covered by a release paper I5 having a tab 16 extending beyond the edge of the release part in order to provide a grip area for taking hold of the release paper to peel it back from the spine portion. The cover portions b and 100 are also coated with adhesive and provided with release sheets b and 150, respectively, with tabs 16b and 160 for gripping the release sheets 15b and 15c to remove them from the cover portions 10b and 100 when the ad hesive is to be exposed.

The adhesive is preferably a pressure sensitive adhesive. but other kinds of adhesive can be used which are activated in other ways; though the pressure sealing adhesive and the release sheets provide the most convenient and satisfactory means for adhering the self binder to books having various kinds of surfaces and with a minimum of inconvenience.

If the spine of the book to which the self-binder is applied is considerably narrower than the spine portion l0a of the self-binder, then the portion 10a will extend part way up along the back and front covers of the book, but the stiffness of the book covers adhered over their entire areas to the self-binder prevent the spine portion 10a from hinging anywhere except at the original hinge lines of the book which is covered. After the self-binder has been applied to the book 11 of FIG. 1, portions of the self-binder which extend beyond the edges of the original book cover are trimmed off, preferably by scissors; or the edges can be trimmed off to fit the book before applying the self-binder to the book as will be explained in connection with FIG. 8.

The material for the self-binder 10 is suitably a synthetic resin plastic such as acetate, polypropylene, pol yvinyl chloride. polyallomer and others which will be referred to in connection with FIGS. 10-12.

FIGS. 4-7 show a construction in which the selfbinder is made in two parts. One part 30 includes a back cover portion 30cand a spine portion 30a. Both portions are covered with adhesive 21. Release paper 15c covers the adhesive on the back cover portion 300 and the release paper 15a covers the adhesive 21 on the spine portion 30a.

FIG. 5 shows the other part of the self-binder which is used with that shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 5 the part 30' is shown with a front cover portion 30'b connected to a spine portion 30'a with adhesive 21 and 21' covering the front portion 30'b and the spine portion 30a, re spectively. A release sheet l5'a covers the adhesive 21 and a release sheet 1517 covers the adhesive 21.

In using the two-part self-binder shown in FIGS. 4-7, either the front or the back portion of the self-binder can be applied first to the book with the spine portion applied to the spine portion of the original cover. When the second part of the self-binder is applied, its spine portion 21 or 210 is applied over the spine portion of the first part.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show the preferred construction of the self'binder of this invention. This self-binder is designated generally by the reference character 40 and it has a spine portion 40a; a front cover portion 40b and a back cover portion 40c. The front cover portion 40b is covered by a release sheet 42b and the back portion of the self-binder 40 is covered by a release sheet 420. These release sheets cover adhesive 21 in the same way as in the other figures already described.

One feature of FIGS. 8 and 9 is the provision of lines 44 on the exposed surfaces of the release sheets. These lines 44 extend parallel to one another both vertically and horizontally across the self-binder to serve as guide lines for cutting the binder to the correct size for a particular book when the binder is to be trimmed to size before being applied to the book. Legends printed adjacent to the different guide lines 44 indicate the dimensions of the cover portions of the recovering material when trimmed along the respective guide lines. Horizontal guide lines can be used for the height of the cover. As to the vertical guide lines, the dimensions indicated are measured from the sides of the spine por tion 400; and when the book is thinner than the width of the spine portion 40a allowance must be made for this in deciding which guide line is to be used when cutting in a vertical direction. Ordinarily the guide lines 44 are used to insure straight cuts when trimming the binder before applying it to the book but the locations of the cuts are determined by placing the book on the binder over the release sheets and noting where the cuts have to be made in order to have the edges of the binder flush with the edges of the original covers of the book. Other guide lines 47 on the release paper can be used to get parallelity between the hinge lines and the backbone of the book.

Flexibility is provided for the spine portion 40a by having grooves 48a-e formed in the spine portion of the binder to provide potential hinge lines. These grooves 48a-e extend parallel to one another and verticaly within the spine portion 40a. In order to obtain the same result without using so many grooves 48a-e to provide zones of flexibility, the spacing of the grooves 48a-e is made in geometrical progression.

For example, referring to FIG. 9, a first groove 480 can have a second groove 48b spaced from it by onequarter inch. A third groove 48c can be spaced from the groove 48b by one-half inch; and a groove 48d can be spaced from the groove 48c by a full inch. In the construction illustrated a last groove 486 is spaced from the groove 48d by one-quarter inchv By use of only five zones of flexibility, provided by the grooves 48, the cover shown in FIG. 9 will accommodate books of any thickness from one-quarter inch to 2 inches in onequarter inch increments.

A quarter inch book 50 can be located between the grooves 48a and 48bv A half-inch book 51 can be located between the grooves 48b and 48c. A threequarter inch book 53 can be located between the grooves 48b and 48c. Thicker books located as indicated by the braces 54, 55 and 56 can be located as indicated and it will be evident that books thicker than the brace 56 can be accommodated up to two inches by extending to the end grooves 480 and 480.

If desired, the spine portion 40:; of the binder shown in FIG. 9 can be covered with a release sheet 42a which has splits 60 over each of the grooves 48u-e so that the space between any two grooves or combination of grooves can be left covered by the release sheet. The advantage of this construction is that the self-binder can be applied to a book filler, which has no covers, and where the cover portions of the self-binders are to be adhered to end papers or terminal pages of the filler and where it is not desired to have the self-binder form a tight back book with the filler adhered to the spine portion of the binder. If the release sheet is left on the spine portion of the binder that confronts the backbone of the filler, then the binder will not adhered to the backbone of the filler.

FIG. shows a portion ofa self-binder 66 which can be similar in construction to that shown in FIGSv 8 and 9 but which is modified by having the binder made of a laminated sheet 68 having an inner component 70 and an outer component 72. The layers 70 and 72 are bonded together, preferably by fusion or adhesive, and the inner layer 70 is made of material which has good hinge properties whereas the outer layer 72 can be made of less expensive material which provides stiffness.

By having the inner layer 70 made of a plastic which is not heat scalable by a high frequency dielectric field; and by having the outer layer 72 made of material which is strongly heated by such a field. grooves 74, corresponding to the grooves 48 of FIGS. 8 and 9, can be made by a die using high frequency heating as described in the patent application of Alvin V. Roberts, Ser. No. 343,0l7.

FIG. 11 shows a modified construction where the cover material 70, with hinge lines 74', is made of plastieized polyvinyl chloride and where there is risk of having plasticizer migrate into the adhesive 21 and de stroy the effectiveness of the adhesive. To prevent such migration, the material 70' in FIG. I] is provided with a barrier coat 76 which prevents the adhesive 21 from touching the surface of the plasticized polyvinyl chloride 70'. Suitable materials for such barrier coat are organic solvent solutions of polyacrylates and vinyls.

FIGS. 12 and 13 show another modified construction for the invention. In these figures, a self-binder 80 is provided with a spine portion 80a, a front portion 80b and a hack portion 80c. The binder 80 is laminated over the extent of the covers 8017 and 801' but the spine portion in 80a is formed of only one thickness of material and preferably is of one-piece construction with an inner component 82 which may be transparent if desired. An outer layer 84, which makes the cover por tions 80b and 80c laminates. terminates at the beginning of the spine portion 8041 as clearly shown in FIG. 12. is also sho n in FIG. 12, adhesive Zl covers the entire inner surface of the inner layer 82 and there are separare release sheets 86a, 86b and 36(' over the binder portions 80a, 80b and 80(', respectively. The sin gle layer spine portion 8011 has sufficient flexibility to provide the hinges for the self-binder and the multilayer front and back portions 80b and 80p provide covers for the book that are stiffer than the backbone. These portions b and 800 are trimmed off flush with the front and back of the original cover of the book and the top of the binder is cut off even with the top of the original cover.

The preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, but changes and modifi cations can be made and some features can be used in different combinations without departing from the invention as defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A book-binding construction for rebinding books, of different size and thickness which have damaged or worn or missing covers, including in combination a book which has front, back and spine portions, a rebinder comprising a sheet of material, the thickness of most areas of the sheet being too stiff to bend as hinges of the rebinder and too stiff for bending around the edges of an original cover of the book, the rebinder having front and back cover panels and a spine panel covering the corresponding parts of the book, preformed grooves parallel to one another and including more than two grooves in the spine portion of the rebinder providing greater local flexibility than the other areas of the rebinder and located in positions to provide hinge lines at different regions depending upon the thickness of the book, the parallel grooves being a series of hinge line grooves in which different distances between grooves constitute a geometrical progression whereby some of the spaces are multiples of other spaces for accurate matching of the book thickness and hinge line spacing, with fewer grooves, by shifting the book transversely of the hinge lines, the strength of the hinge lines being sufficient for an original cover, the shet material being a continuous piece that extends across the front and back portions and the spine portion of the book and said grooves providing substitute hinges for holding in place original covers torn loose from the spine along part of the length of the hinge lines of said covers, the front and back cover panels of the rebinder being approximately parallel throughout their full extent to the front and rear portions of the book and being of approximately uniform thickness from the spine portion hinge lines to the edges of said cover panels of the rebinder, pressure-sensitive adhesive covering the inside of the rebinder that contacts with the front and back of the book, the pressuresensitive adhesive being of a nature useable with release sheets for covering said adhesive and for stripping off prior to the application of the cover to the book, said sheet material extending beyond the edges of the front and back of the book, and the sheet material being of a consistency that can be trimmed off, with scissors, flush or to any desired extent of overhang with respect to the front and back portions of the book.

2. The book binding construction described in claim 1 characterized by said binder being a one-piece sheet of plastic which is of reduced thickness at the grooves of the potential hinge lines and of substantially the same thickness throughout the remainder of the area of said rebinder.

3. The book binding construction described in claim 1 characterized by the rebinder being secured to the front and back of the book by said adhesive and the rebinder being stiff but trimmed off flush with the corresponding edges of the front and back of the book and the top and bottom edges of the spine of the book.

to the top edge thereof indicating where the rebinder should be cut to fit a book of a given size, and legends on the release sheet giving directions for using the rebinder 

1. A book-binding construction for rebinding books, of different size and thickness which have damaged or worn or missing cOvers, including in combination a book which has front, back and spine portions, a rebinder comprising a sheet of material, the thickness of most areas of the sheet being too stiff to bend as hinges of the rebinder and too stiff for bending around the edges of an original cover of the book, the rebinder having front and back cover panels and a spine panel covering the corresponding parts of the book, preformed grooves parallel to one another and including more than two grooves in the spine portion of the rebinder providing greater local flexibility than the other areas of the rebinder and located in positions to provide hinge lines at different regions depending upon the thickness of the book, the parallel grooves being a series of hinge line grooves in which different distances between grooves constitute a geometrical progression whereby some of the spaces are multiples of other spaces for accurate matching of the book thickness and hinge line spacing, with fewer grooves, by shifting the book transversely of the hinge lines, the strength of the hinge lines being sufficient for an original cover, the shet material being a continuous piece that extends across the front and back portions and the spine portion of the book and said grooves providing substitute hinges for holding in place original covers torn loose from the spine along part of the length of the hinge lines of said covers, the front and back cover panels of the rebinder being approximately parallel throughout their full extent to the front and rear portions of the book and being of approximately uniform thickness from the spine portion hinge lines to the edges of said cover panels of the rebinder, pressure-sensitive adhesive covering the inside of the rebinder that contacts with the front and back of the book, the pressure-sensitive adhesive being of a nature useable with release sheets for covering said adhesive and for stripping off prior to the application of the cover to the book, said sheet material extending beyond the edges of the front and back of the book, and the sheet material being of a consistency that can be trimmed off, with scissors, flush or to any desired extent of overhang with respect to the front and back portions of the book.
 2. The book binding construction described in claim 1 characterized by said binder ebeing a one-piece sheet of plastic which is of reduced thickness at the grooves of the potential hinge lines and of substantially the same thickness throughout the remainder of the area of said rebinder.
 3. The book binding construction described in claim 1 characterized by the rebinder being secured to the front and back of the book by said adhesive and the rebinder being stiff but trimmed off flush with the corresponding edges of the front and back of the book and the top and bottom edges of the spine of the book.
 4. The book binding construction described in claim 1 characterized by the sheet material of the rebinder being synthetic polymeri material, release sheets for covering the adhesive and having lines marked thereon parallel to the vertical edges of the binder and parallel to the top edge thereof indicating where the rebinder should be cut to fit a book of a given size, and legends on the release sheet giving directions for using the rebinder. 